Hard Winter Work
John Vollertson is a local writer and historian, and accompanied us on a summer pack trip into the North Fork of the Sun River near our summer camp at Gates Park. He was doing some research for a book on 19th century railroad tie cutters. The tie cutters were some real tough guys who would spend the winters in the mountains cutting down trees, hewing flat sides on them, and cutting them to length for the railroads that were being built across the West. John's research was into the men and methods of cutting and transporting these railroad ties from the headwaters of nearby rivers and getting them to railroads.
